Though it was announced in August that Battlefield 2142 would feature in-game
advertising (story), when the game appeared on shelves yesterday
there were reactions to the references to this in the EULA, some calling the
included technology "spyware." This was seemingly first stirred up by a
Shacknews comment, with
a subsequent comment
succeeding somewhat (typos from re-typing it are corrected here) in reproducing
the troubling aspects of the agreement, which advises against installing the
game onto any computer attaching to the internet if you find the following
problematic:

When you use the Software while connected to the Internet,
the Advertising Technology may record your IP address and other anonymous
information ("Advertising Data"). The Advertising Data is temporarily used by
IGA to enable the presentation and measurement of in-game advertisements and
other in-game objects which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer
or game console and changed during online game play. The Advertising Technology
does not collect any personally identifiable information about you, and EA will
not provide IGA with any of your personally identifiable information. The
servers used by the Advertising Technology may, from time to time, be located
outside your country of residence.

There was speculation that this would
result in ads being served based on user's cookies, and other sneaky stuff, but
EA's
response to Joystiq clarifies what sort of information is being collected:

The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files
which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data
such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.

BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP
address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the
appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be
presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed
for other uses.

Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game
advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration
of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers
qualify the reach of a given advertisement.